Veritas NetBackup™ Replication Director Solutions Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (8.3.0.1, 8.3, 8.2, 8.1)
  1. Introduction
    1.  
      About NetBackup Replication Director
    2.  
      About the roles of the Replication Director plug-ins
    3.  
      Software required to use Replication Director
    4.  
      NetBackup configuration for Replication Director
    5.  
      Tools for troubleshooting Replication Director
  2. Additional configuration topics
    1.  
      Configuring the NetBackup Client Service
    2.  
      NetBackup naming conventions
    3.  
      How to configure a multi-NIC environment
  3. Creating a NetBackup storage server for snapshot replication
    1.  
      Creating a NetBackup storage server for snapshot replication
    2.  
      Updating an OpenStorage storage server to reflect plug-in updates
    3.  
      Adding the storage server credentials to a NetBackup server
  4. Configuring disk pools for snapshot and replication
    1. About disk pools for snapshots and snapshot replication
      1.  
        About disk volumes for snapshots and snapshot replication
    2.  
      Creating disk pools for snapshot replication
    3.  
      Updating disk pools after volumes are added, are deleted, or are changed
    4.  
      Updating an OpenStorage disk pool to reflect plug-in updates
    5.  
      How to resolve snapshot disk volume changes
    6. Using bpstsinfo to view the replication topology of a device
      1.  
        NetApp storage server sample bpstsinfo output
  5. Configuring storage units and storage unit groups for snapshots and snapshot replication
    1.  
      Creating storage units for a Replication Director configuration
    2.  
      Creating storage unit groups for snapshots
  6. Configuring storage lifecycle policies for snapshots and snapshot replication
    1.  
      About configuring storage lifecycle policies for snapshots and snapshot replication
    2.  
      Creating a storage lifecycle policy for snapshots and snapshot replication
    3. Operation types in a storage lifecycle policy
      1. Snapshot operation in an SLP
        1.  
          Primary snapshot storage unit
        2.  
          Primary + Replication source snapshot storage unit
        3.  
          Replication source + Replication target snapshot storage unit
        4.  
          Replication target snapshot storage unit
        5.  
          Replication source + Replication target + Mirror snapshot storage unit
        6.  
          Replication target + Mirror snapshot storage unit
      2.  
        Replication operation in an SLP
      3. Index From Snapshot operation in an SLP
        1.  
          Determining where and when the Index From Snapshot operation occurs
        2.  
          Pre-requisites for indexing for an NDMP policy
        3.  
          Configuring indexing for an NDMP policy
      4.  
        Backup From Snapshot operation in an SLP
      5.  
        Duplication operation in an SLP
    4. Retention types for storage lifecycle policy operations
      1.  
        Expire after copy retention type for SLP operations
      2.  
        Fixed retention type for SLP operations
      3.  
        Maximum snapshot limit retention type for SLP operations
      4.  
        Mirror retention type for SLP operations
      5.  
        Target retention type for SLP operations
  7. Configuring backup policies for snapshots and snapshot replication
    1.  
      About configuring a backup policy for Replication Director
    2.  
      Configuring an NDMP policy to protect a NAS host
    3.  
      Configuring a Standard or MS-Windows policy to protect clients using NDMP with Data Mover
    4.  
      Configuring a Standard or MS-Windows policy to protect NAS volumes or SAN-connected devices
    5. About NDMP support for Replication Director
      1.  
        Limitations of Replication Director with NDMP
      2.  
        Authorizing NetBackup access to a NAS (NDMP) host
      3.  
        ALL_FILESYSTEMS and VOLUME_EXCLUDE_LIST directives
      4.  
        Configuring an NDMP policy in a multi-network environment
  8. Restoring from a snapshot
    1.  
      About restores from array-based snapshots
    2.  
      Restoring files and folders from an array-based snapshot
    3. About restores from array-based snapshots of virtual machines
      1.  
        Restoring files from array-based snapshots of virtual machines
    4.  
      Using OpsCenter to restore from array-based snapshots
    5.  
      How NetApp performs a volume-level rollback restore
    6.  
      Restoring (rolling back) from an array-based snapshot
  9. OpsCenter reporting
    1.  
      Veritas OpsCenter reporting
    2.  
      Configuring an alert for OpenStorage events
    3.  
      Storage lifecycle policy reporting
    4.  
      Disk pool monitoring
    5.  
      Monitoring snapshot replication jobs
    6.  
      Reporting on storage units, storage unit groups, and storage lifecycle policies
  10. Using NetApp disk arrays with Replication Director
    1.  
      Using NetApp disk arrays with Replication Director
    2. Supported NetApp topologies
      1.  
        NetApp topologies that Replication Director does not support
    3. Using NetApp Data ONTAP 7-mode with Replication Director
      1.  
        Configuration overview: NetApp 7-Mode with Replication Director
      2.  
        Licenses required for NetApp Data ONTAP 7-Mode with Replication Director
      3.  
        Software required to use NetApp Data ONTAP 7-Mode with Replication Director
      4. About using NetApp SAN-connected storage with Replication Director
        1.  
          Using SnapDrive for iSCSI setup on Windows
        2.  
          SAN-connected storage limitations
      5.  
        If the OnCommand Unified Manager root or administrator password has changed
      6.  
        Considerations when configuring an OnCommand Unified Manager as a NetBackup storage server
      7.  
        Importing existing NetApp relationships for NetBackup control
      8.  
        Enabling Unicode and language settings on NetApp disk arrays
    4. Using NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP with Replication Director
      1.  
        Configuration overview: NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP with Replication Director
      2.  
        Licenses required for NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP with Replication Director
      3.  
        Software required to use NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP with Replication Director
      4.  
        Configuring Replication Director to work with Clustered Data ONTAP
      5.  
        About creating backup policies for Clustered Data ONTAP with Replication Director
      6.  
        Protecting volumes with nested junctions for Clustered Data ONTAP
      7.  
        Limitations to using Clustered Data ONTAP with Replication Director
  11. Using Oracle with Replication Director
    1.  
      Requirements for Oracle support
    2. About Oracle support for Replication Director
      1.  
        Configuring an Oracle Intelligent Policy
      2.  
        Configuring a script- or template-based Oracle policy
  12. Using Virtual Machines with Replication Director
    1.  
      Requirements for virtual machine support
    2. About virtual machines and Replication Director
      1.  
        Notes on Replication Director for virtual machines
      2.  
        Configuring a policy for virtual machines to use Replication Director
      3.  
        About jobs in the Activity Monitor that use Replication Director for virtual machines
  13. Terminology
    1.  
      Replication terminology

About NetBackup Replication Director

Replication Director is the implementation of NetBackup OpenStorage-managed snapshots and snapshot replication, where the snapshots are stored on the storage systems of partnering companies. OpenStorage is a Veritas API that lets NetBackup communicate with the storage implementations that conform to the API.

Replication Director uses the functions of the OpenStorage partners to perform the following tasks:

  • To share disks so that multiple heterogeneous media servers can access the same disk volume concurrently.

  • To balance loads and tune performance. NetBackup balances backup jobs and storage usage among the media servers and disk pools.

  • To make full use of disk array capabilities, including fast storage provisioning and almost unlimited storage.

  • To use as an alternative to off-site vaulting. Storage replication technology provides an efficient means to send copies of user data (files, applications, databases) to off-site storage as part of a disaster recovery plan.

NetBackup stores snapshots of client data on the volumes that are available to the storage server.

Snapshots represent a point-in-time of primary storage data as captured by the storage hardware. NetBackup can then instruct the storage server to replicate the snapshot from primary volumes to other volumes available to the storage server. The snapshot can be replicated to multiple volumes within the storage server, or to storage outside of the storage server, such as a tape device or other disk storage. Replication Director can accommodate an assortment of scenarios to meet the specific data protection needs of an organization.

Replication Director offers a single NetBackup interface for end-to-end data protection management for the following tasks:

  • Unified policy management.

    Use the NetBackup Administration Console as the one, centralized backup infrastructure to manage the lifecycle of all data.

  • Snapshot copy management.

    Use NetBackup to manage the entire lifecycle of the snapshot. Replication Director uses OpenStorage with a media server to access the storage server volumes. No image can be moved, expired, or deleted from the disk array unless NetBackup instructs the storage server to do so.

    The instruction to perform the initial snapshot comes from an operation in a NetBackup storage lifecycle policy (SLP). You can create one SLP that instructs NetBackup to create the initial snapshot, to replicate the snapshot to several locations, and to indicate a different retention period for each of the replications. Additional instructions (or operations) can be included in the SLP that create a backup from the snapshot, index the snapshot, and more.

  • Snapshot copy monitoring.

    Use NetBackup OpsCenter to monitor the creation of each copy at each storage location. OpsCenter provides extensive reporting on the entire replication environment.

  • Global search and restore.

    Recovery is available from any storage device in the environment that is defined to NetBackup. This includes recovery from the primary copy or any replicated copy on disk, or from any duplicated copy on disk or tape.